


Brave New World

by ismellitblue



Category: Doom Patrol (TV)
Genre: Gen, If the plague didn't get them nothing will, The Doom Patrol are old, This is not their first pandemic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29109078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ismellitblue/pseuds/ismellitblue
Summary: The Doom Patrol's thoughts on people losing their minds over the latest human pandemic.
Relationships: Crazy Jane & Cliff Steele, Keeg Bovo & Larry Trainor, Rita Farr & Larry Trainor
Kudos: 11





	Brave New World

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Doom Patrol.

They’re at the manor( which where they can be found most of the time). Rita, catching up on some knitting . Larry for his part, is reading up on making organic pesticides. The kind that protect his plants without killing the soil.

The two of them are silent, but the TV provides soothing background noise. Said TV was a gift from Cliff, they’d had a radio before, but it had been one of the many casualties in the war between Cliff and the rats.

The noise from the TV, suddenly went from a gentle hum to jarring screeches, disturbing both of them, and they turned their attention to the screen.

They might not go out much but they know about the new virus, everybody does. But unlike the residents of doom manor, the people in the TV are not taking the news so well.

There are people burning cars, screaming at the top of their lungs, spit going everywhere, some of them are burning masks, running their hands over surfaces and touching strangers.

“ _Bedlam_ …absolute hooligans,” Rita seethes, and Larry nods along, disgusted.

The people on screen, they’re spoiled. They don’t know how good they have it. Medical care is advanced enough to tell them what to do to avoid illness, vacccines are underway, but rather than being thankful. They’re angry that their lives are being saved.

They don’t know suffering. Don’t know the fear of watching friends and neighbours die without knowing what’s killing them, or if you’re next. Larry bets most of them don’t even know what an iron lung looks like.

They watched a blonde woman moaning to the camera about the injustice of it all and Rita scoffed“Polio would’ve made short work of them, and does her face have to be so…red… she would never have made it in the pictures,”

“ TB would be having a field day,” Larry added, there was a woosh from behind them, followed by popcorn raining over them as Flit took a seat, but by the time she reached into the bowl, Jane had taken over.

“What are you two watching?” She asked, popcorn falling from her too full mouth as she talked.

“Human stupidity,” Rita said, gently removing popcorn from her hair.

“Man, I remember the amount of crazy that went on when AIDS was discovered…those were some wild times,”

Loud thunks preceeded Cliff’s arrival, and having caught Jane’s last statement he added his own two cents “ Yeah, the eighties were pretty crazy. I was an idion back then…” There was an awkward moment where Jane clearly held herself back from telling him he was _still_ an idiot.

“ The only reason I didn’t catch anything was cause I always gloved up,” He mimed something too obscene to be repeated by polite company.

“Didn’t want kids out there I didn’t know about,”

“Thank you, Cliff, what would the world be without you oversharing,”

“You’d think people would learn from the past-panicking makes things worse- I lost a lot of friends because of douchebags like that,” Jane punctuated the sentence by throwing popcorn at the heads of protesters, making a game out of hitting their unmasked mouths.

“Well then, that’s us done. Larry, it’s time for our evening walk, shall we?” Rita held out a hand(perfectly solid, no blobbing in sight, here control these days was phenomenal). Heaving himself up, Larry took her hand and helped her up, giving a casual wave to the others as they made their way out.

***

Later, when he was alone in his room, Larry thought of the situation again.

The people out in the world had been thrust into something he’d been living for over six decades. But unlike him, they had a say in how they handled their situation. When he’d first woken up in the military hospital all those years ago…Larry hadn’t had a choice. It had been isolation all the way.

He hadn’t meant to kill all the men and women who’d been trying to save his life, but he had. And the moment he’d realized he was dangerous to others, he’d willingly put on an awful smelling rubber suit. Not even able to share oxygen with the rest of the planet. He slept in a room lined with lead, and covered up in layers of bandages when he went out.

Not for himself, but for the protection of others. The people out there were being asked to wear masks not only for the benefit of others but for themselves as well. But they’d just said ‘ _No’_ , easy as that.

For a moment Larry imagined having that level of selfishness. What if one day he just woke up and went out? No bandages, no goggles. Just Larry with his scarred skin, and radiation, He’d be able to feel the wind directly for the first time in decades, touch things directly, feel the sun.

Simple things, but things he missed like an amputated limb.

His skin sparked, his chest glowing. Keeg letting out a mental screech that cut off his train of thought .

“You’re right pal, it’s a bad idea,” Everyday for more than half his life, Larry’d been getting up and covering himself from head to toe in bandages. A process that took hours, and he’d continue to do so for hours. For Rita, for Cliff, for Jane, for Vic, and even for the strangers out in the street. Sacrificing a few hours each day was nothing compared to the countless lives he saved everyday just by covering up.

Larry wasn’t a hero, and probably never would be, but he liked to think that in this one thing, he was actually being a decent human being.

**Author's Note:**

> The team's been doing quarantine and masking(Larry especially), for decades. So I did a little snippet on how I think they see things.


End file.
